In a few months time we will be able to properly assess the market and see who is cheapest. Many more suppliers will have put their prices up and those that haven’t may well have issued a statement to say what they are doing. There is going to be no getting away from it though, your bill is almost certainly going to rise.

If you do switch now their is every chance that in a couple of months you will find yourself on a more expensive deal and you may have to switch again. You could even end up locked in to a tariff for 12 months. These type of deals are rare but sometimes you get better rates by agreeing to stay with them for a year. Now isn’t the right time to go for these type of offers. There are a few deals left were you can get a fixed price for a number of years. If you are desperate to move and you can find one of these deals that aren’t to expensive then they are a reasonable option.

In truth though the only people who should be looking at switching are those that have never moved before. If you are still with your original suppliers then the savings would be so great that moving now would still leave you better off, even if prices rise at your new supplier.

Most houses already have loft insulation but if it isn’t good enough or thick enough it won’t be doing a very good job of keeping the heat in. It should be 270mm thick, so check it now and top it up if it isn’t up to the job. If you have no loft insulation at all you could be wasting 15% of the money you spend on heating. Loft insulation is usually something you can do yourself and will only cost a few hundred pounds. This would easily be made back in a couple of years.

If you have cavity walls and haven’t already had them filled with an insulating material you should give it some consideration. It isn’t a job you can really do yourself but should still only cost about £500 for an average home. It will save you about £80 a year so it will take a little while to cover the installation cost. If you don’t have a wall cavity you can clad the interior or exterior of the walls instead. This isn’t cheap though.

This next tip won’t cost you a penny and can start saving you straight away. Turn down your heating. If you turn it down by just 1°C you can save 10% and about £40 a year. I know we don’t like the idea of turning the heating down when it is cold but you won’t even notice a small change in temperature. As soon as the sun goes down you should be shutting your curtains. This can stop a lot of heat escaping out of the window.

If your boiler is on it’s last legs then it won’t be performing very well and could be costing you a lot of money. You should look for the most efficient boiler available when it comes to replacing it. A condensing boiler is best as it converts 90% of the energy it uses into heat. This compares favourably to the 60% of a conventional boiler.

If you follow all of this advice you can easily save 50% of your heating costs. There will be an initial outlay but it should only take a few years to recover. There is more information available from the Energy Saving Trust and they can even tell you if there are any grants or offers available by filling out the form here.